Why DeFi Will Only Win When It Disappears

In Brief

The panel at Hack Seasons Opportunity Mixer in Hanoi focused on real people’s needs and why Web3 is failing to deliver them, highlighting the crypto industry’s promise of “onboarding the masses.”

If there’s one thing the crypto industry keeps promising, but rarely delivering, it’s “onboarding the masses.” At the Hack Seasons Opportunity Mixer in Hanoi, the panel “Onboarding the Masses: DeFi at the Scale” brought together five builders who have stopped waiting for the breakthrough and started designing it.

Featuring Shawn Tan (Alchemy), Jason Dominique (Onchain Ramp), C.J. Freeman (Kadena), Daniel Oon (Katana), and Josephine (TON Foundation), the conversation cut through the usual noise of interoperability, Layer 2s, and TPS stats. Instead, it focused on what real people actually want, and why Web3 is still so bad at giving it to them.

The Problem Isn’t Technology, It’s Expectation

Shawn Tan from Alchemy came in sharp. “We’re expecting users to be engineers,” he said. “That’s the problem.” He painted a vivid picture of a typical first-time DeFi journey: download a wallet, store a seed phrase, go to a dApp, get confused, find a bridge, swap tokens, pay gas fees, lose money, give up. It’s a process nobody would tolerate in any other industry.

According to Tan, the key to mass adoption isn’t better infrastructure. We already have that. It’s building apps where users don’t even realize they’re interacting with a blockchain. That’s what Alchemy focuses on, abstracting complexity, not glorifying it.

The Wallet Is Not the Product

Jason Dominique, co-founder and CEO of Onchain Ramp, picked up this thread and pushed it even further. “Why are we still forcing people to create wallets before they even know what they’re signing up for?” he asked.

His approach flips the onboarding process on its head. Instead of forcing users through a multi-step funnel just to buy crypto or use a dApp, Onchain Ramp lets them purchase tokens directly within the dApp, using fiat, no KYC, no registration, and no separate wallet setup. For Dominique, the wallet is not the entry point; it’s just one of many tools in the background. “The moment you remove the barrier, you unlock the user,” he said.

DeFi Can’t Scale Without Devs Who Can Ship

While user friction dominated much of the discussion, C.J. Freeman from Kadena offered a crucial reminder: developers face just as many hurdles. Kadena, a Layer 1 focused on scalable and secure smart contracts, is doubling down on simplifying the developer experience.

“Even in Web2, if your dev tools suck, your product won’t grow,” Freeman said. “Web3 is no different.” His point was clear: if developers can’t easily build, test, and launch applications without dealing with fragmented infrastructure and endless compatibility issues, then DeFi won’t scale, because nothing will get finished.

He emphasized that onboarding the masses isn’t just about wallets or UX. It’s also about giving builders better environments, stronger libraries, and more predictable tools to innovate faster. Without that foundation, we’re just spinning wheels.

Daniel Oon, Head of DeFi at Katana, brought a broader and more behavioral lens to the conversation. For him, education is the unsung layer of onboarding. “You can’t teach someone DeFi in a popup window,” he said. “You guide them with incentives and experiences.”

He pointed to the role of staking, gaming, and interactive dApps in pulling people in—not with lengthy tutorials, but through products that reward curiosity and build understanding organically. Oon argued that onboarding should feel like progress, not punishment. The more you do, the more you learn, the more you earn. It’s a feedback loop the traditional financial system has never offered.

The Real Scale Is Where the Users Already Are

And then came Josephine, Head of SSEA at the TON Foundation, who reminded everyone of a massive advantage most crypto projects ignore: distribution. TON’s deep integration with Telegram means it already lives where users are, 1.5 billion of them.

“People don’t want another app. They want what they’re already using to do more,” she said. That insight is at the heart of TON’s design: crypto tools that feel like messaging tools. In-chat wallets, games, and simple payment flows make DeFi not just accessible, but natural. “Mass adoption doesn’t happen on websites. It happens in conversations,” Josephine added.

TON’s strategy is a stark contrast to traditional DeFi onboarding paths, which ask users to go somewhere new and learn a new language. Instead, TON embeds DeFi into existing behavior. That’s what scale really looks like.

The Best UX Is the One You Don’t Notice

If there was one message that defined the panel, it’s this: DeFi will never scale until it stops trying to look like DeFi. The wallet should disappear into the background. The jargon should go away. The onboarding should feel like discovery, not a chore.

And for all the talk about “mass adoption,” the builders on this stage are actually doing something about it. Whether it’s removing the wallet step (Onchain Ramp), integrating DeFi into everyday apps (TON), or building cleaner tools for devs (Kadena), they’re breaking down the barriers that have kept DeFi in the hands of a technical few.

Real onboarding doesn’t start with Web3. It starts with people and meeting them where they already are.